PartnerRe establishes reinsurer in Africa

Bermuda-based PartnerRe has expanded its reach with the launch of an African reinsurance company dedicated to agricultural risk.

The reinsurer, domiciled in Morocco, has been established in partnership with Moroccan insurer Mutuelle Agricole Marocaine d’Assurance (MAMDA) and French reinsurer La Mutuelle Centrale de Réassurance (MCR).

The operations of MAMDA RE are expected to commence in the first quarter of 2015.

Charles Goldie, deputy chief executive officer of global non-life and head of global specialty lines, PartnerRe, explained the reasoning behind the establishment of the reinsurer.

“This new venture with MAMDA, one of our longstanding clients, reflects our focus on long-term partnerships to build broad, innovative solutions that go well beyond simply providing capacity. In addition to the agricultural expertise we bring to this partnership, we will also look at expanding the offering to include both life and non-life insurance products that would further stabilize and grow the farming community in Africa,” he said.

“Traditional crop insurance products are the driving factor but we’re also considering property insurance and credit life insurance. It’s not going to be a rapid development, although I would expect that once we get going, we’ll see some expansions. We are not expecting to see any effect to show in the figures for the first six months of 2015.

“Reinsurance is not just a financial transaction. It’s a knowledge transaction and it’s incredibly important to have people that understand the product and the market they’re working in. I believe that MAMDA RE can offer this.”

PartnerRe has a longstanding relationship with MAMDA, supporting it also in 2012 in the development of nationwide programme to help protect small farmers against drought.  The reinsurer said that the Moroccan programme is now viewed in other African countries as a prototype for a subsidised insurance model.